News & UpdatesWe're always up to something

Gavin Reub, director of Puny Humans opening tonight at Annex Theatre, takes us deeper into gamer culture, Comic-Con, and the best way to unwind after journeying into the world Bret Fetzer & Keiko Green have created.​NE: As dramaturgs, we always start with: Why this play now? What are Seattle audiences going to connect to in this play?GR: Just two weeks ago the Emerald City Comic-Con dominated downtown Seattle. People dressed as their favorite hero/villain/poke-creature and gathered together to celebrate a conglomeration of cultures that, until about a decade ago, had been pretty much ignored in the United States. Like some kind of hyperbolic Michael Chekhov exercise, people could close their eyes, step into their fantasies, and run a muck in a place of comfort. Video games, movies, and comics are doorways to our imagination. For many this is the way to find safety, and a new form of identity.

The Con may get some press in Seattle for its costumes and downtown traffic, but it’s what you see when you zoom in that really matters; whole sub-genres and sub-sub-genres of culture whose stories have not only gone untold, but generally ignored. It has been well documented that many people who partake in 'non-traditional' cultures are labeled as odd and then left to their oddness, when the reality is that this is how they find solace in their differences from the 'normal' world. People with depression, mental, and other unseen illnesses, are often attracted to comic culture, and are then washed off as 'another one of the strange' by the mass perspective.

Take This is a non-profit that seeks to inform our community about mental health issues, to provide education about mental disorders and mental illness prevention, and to reduce the stigma of mental illness. This comes from their experience of the ignored diagnosis in gamer culture.

This is also the scene of the famous, and growing "gamergate." The tide of female gamers is more than just here, it is up to our neck, and it is beyond time that it was recognized. Sexism is still ridiculously prevalent in gamer culture, at times being a give-in for the gaming community. I knew I grew up playing under the incorrect assumption that most players were men. I still often do. Women are a classically forgotten facet of nerd/geek/gamer culture, but the light is expanding in attempt to give an equal voice to non-male identifying portions of the community. For a culture that is so often associated with open choice and flamboyant flag flying due to it's colorful comic-con showings, there is still a deep-seeded hate that runs through the community. An anonymous culture that is so riddled with loathing and trolls that abuse has become the norm. Finally the tide is turning, and these aggressively racist, homophobic, and generally bigoted people are being stood up against. This play is one of those voices.

Also, I just don't want to see another play right now that is about my parents in a living room.

NE: Amen. What has it been like to work with two playwrights, co-authors, on the script?GR: It was great. Bret and Keiko are wonderful writers, with unique voices, who came together seamlessly to build this script. It felt like they started in individual places of inspiration, then formed into a beautiful Voltron of constructive criticism to build a script that is a complex portrait of the changing face of culture, nerdom, and the world. They became their own critics, voices of reason, and tag team, allowing me to focus on the work I needed to do in tying the whole thing together.

Sometimes I felt like they came together to create one playwright and one dramaturg, working together throughout the process. It's nice to be given the gift of perspective when working on a piece of art. PLUS, we could fit more sub-cultures and references into the play with a two-headed writing team, then any singular nerd could concoct. It's our own mini Justice League, methinks.

NE: So, what’s been the biggest surprise for you so far in directing this play?GR: You know... people say costumes change a play, but I've never seen that be so true. When you are running on a shoe-string budget, a beautiful but sparse set, and a reference laden play, you don't have a clue what you really have until the first time you see Batman and Joker play Magic: The Gathering against one another, then you TRULY know what beauty is.​​I've also been surprised by how excitedly people have clung to this play. It is obvious there is a deep seeded need for more characters and stories like these. It's not just the growing fan-base, either; it's the late night conversations with actors about which HP house Batman would be in (still a heated debating going about Ravenclaw or Griffindor), the arguments about Pikachu's selfie skills, and the place of Dragonball amongst the great comics of all time. Would you rather read Dragonball, or Watchmen?

NE: I've yet to read either... sounds like I have some homework before tonight! Any specific recommendations before audiences come to see the show?GR: I've been binge watching Anime. There is a new Gundam out which is rad. If I were you, however, I'd arrive a half hour early, play some video games, get a drink, and then read the entirety of Alan Moore's The Killing Joke. Really though, you should plan a week of prep. This play has so many references that I will honestly buy a drink for someone who gets all of them. Monday: Star Wars. Tuesday: Dragonball. Wednesday: Play Magic with a friend. Thursday: Zelda Friday: Watchmen. Saturday: Spirited Away. Sunday: Street Fighter. ​Then you come see the show (maybe after a cup of joe at Ray Gun), and stay to have a drink with the cast. We will talk for hours.

​NE: What’s next for this play?GR: As our character Gordon says, "It doesn't matter. What I've said will resonate through this facility, and now . . . the world." We’re excited to see who this play resonates with and where it might go next.

Our first stop in Louisville is Actors Theatre of Louisville, home of the Humana Festival for New Plays (and celebrating their 40th year!). ATL is in the heart of downtown Louisville, KY and the partnership between the theatre and the Humana Foundation is the longest running partnership of it's type. With theatre makers and lovers coming in from all over the country, we're excited to see all 7 of these new works, meet the playwrights, dramaturgs, & directors, catch up with old friends, and make some new ones.

​We kicked off the start of the festival with a fantastic party hosted by Actors Theatre of Louisville at the Speed Art Museum. Welcoming us to the festival with opening remarks by the one and only, Les Waters, artistic director of ATL. The crowd was a social mix of actors, playwrights, producers, directors, patrons, board members, local and national artists.

​At the opening party, we caught up with some Seattle artists who were working on the festival. One of our favorite playwrights, Steven Dietz opened This Random World at Humana and was awarded one of the finalist citations from the Steinberg/A​mercian T​heatre Critics Association​ for his play Bloomsday which premiered at ACT Theatre in Seattle last year. The incredible actor, Renata Friedman, also perforning in This Random World, has previously graced Seattle stages in new works like The K of D by Laura Schellhardt at Seattle Repertory Theatre.

At the opening night party we also got to catch up with playwright Martyna Majok who was first introduced to Seattle through One Coast Collaboration and her play reWilding was produced by the Satori Group in 2013. Her playIronbound is currently running in NYC at Rattlestick and her project with the Women's Project in their Pipeline festival opens next week. While we at UP love the ways technology allows us to connect, nothing beats getting to spend time together in person; especially with new play advocate, manager, producer, and mentor extraordinaire, Kelly Miller who's involved with innovative organizations like New Neighborhood, The Kilroys and the Women's Project Theatre Pipeline Festival (along with Martyna and Lee Sunday Evans, director of Wellesley Girl--interview coming soon!). Let's hear it for more power to female playwrights and theatre makers!
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Check back here over the next few weeks for interviews with some of the amazing new play champions we met at the Humana Festival!

Emily Penick is the artistic director of RED STAGE, a new company of female theatre artists -- also including Keiko Green, Stephanie Haire, and Julia Nardin -- whose mission is to champion emerging playwrights from across the country by producing provocative, socially relevant theatre in Seattle. RED STAGE has partnered with ACT to produce Mark Chrisler’s Worse Than Tigers, which will lay the foundation for future RED STAGE projects, including civic and community partnerships and charitable work benefitting Seattle. We got a sneak peek of the world premiere of Worse Than Tigers, opening tomorrow night in the Bullitt Cabaret at ACT Theatre. Penick, director of Worse Than Tigers, took a break from tech rehearsals to chat with Umbrella Project’s Executive Director, Norah Elges, about the challenge of first productions, Seattle’s impending ‘big moment’, and the etiquette of social media.

Norah Elges: What is it to make new work in Seattle? Why is it important?Emily Penick: It’s a challenge producing a world premiere with a brand-new theatre company mainly because both the theatre [community] and larger Seattle communities don’t know who we are yet. Worse Than Tigers is about provoking actual human connection in an age when we’ve become isolated by technology. I think that’s a grim reality we’re all dealing with right now. And how fun is it to find a deliciously smart and funny script to hold a mirror up to our flawed modern society?

NE: Is that what attracted you to Worse Than Tigers as the inaugural RED STAGE production?EP: I first experienced Mark Chrisler’s bitingly witty comedic voice six years ago when we were both getting our MFAs, in directing and playwriting respectively, at Ohio University. Here was this deeply thoughtful and provocative Chicago playwright who could soul-dive into the deeper conversations and conflicts plaguing our modern society, all the while making us laugh at the absurdity of our reality. He was writing comedy with substance. Mark’s voice struck me as a combination of Pinter, Mamet, and Albee -- I’ve carried this particular script of his close to my heart for the past few years, waiting for it to have its moment. Perhaps you heard it in the Construction Zone reading at ACT last year, or at a Pipeline reading for NCTC. This script has been praised from Stella Adler Studios in NYC to the Ilkholm Theatre in Uzbekistan. And now it comes to life here at ACT, in what will be the first of many US productions, I’m sure.

NE: How does Worse Than Tigers fulfill your mission and empower female voices and theatre artists? How does this play ask us to view women?EP: R.E.D. stands for Risk, Engage, Discover.I founded RED STAGE because I wanted a theatre company in which women curate the conversation. Worse Than Tigers has at its heart, the story of a very strong and passionate woman who is trying to re-enter the world after becoming emotionally cut-off. Olivia, played by the brilliant Kirsten Potter, goes through an incredible transformation over the course of the evening, as she tries to engage more fully with her world and the people in it. The tone is comedic and absurd, but the meat of the story lies in the vital need for human connection and empathy.

NE: As a dramaturg, my first question in moving work forward is, “Why this play now?” What about Worse Than Tigers needs to be shared with current Seattle audiences? EP: Are you sick of people curating their Facebook profiles more than they cultivate their actual human relationships? Does it disturb you how commonplace it has become to find out about a death or a national tragedy on social media instead of from a friend or loved-one? Worse Than Tigers confronts these very real real-world problems in an absurdly brilliant comedy.

NE: Definitely turn off your cell phones. What else should audiences know before they walk into this play?EP: It’s a 90 minute comedic thrill-ride that will make you laugh and cry. The vivacious Kirsten Potter married to the hilarious Brad Farwell are comedic gold, and they are complemented beautifully by the sexy and unpredictable John William Watkins (from the cast of SLEEP NO MORE in New York). There are secondary productions in the works in Chicago and New York (literary managers across the country love this script!), so see it first in Seattle and support this fledgeling all-female theatre company. Also, Jennifer Zeyl’s brilliant set design has made the Bullitt Cabaret unrecognizable.

NE: How does RED STAGE plan to continue to execute its mission statement beyond Worse Than Tigers? EP: We are a young company who will only produce scripts that we truly believe have a future beyond Seattle and that will have a greater life in the American theatre — in the national conversation. So, with the loose goal of producing one play a year, I’m very invested in the connective-tissue between productions, which will be RED STAGE salons and community events crafted on the model of women in the arts sharing resources and supporting each other’s work. I’ve been amazed, in my 12 years of directing, how few peers and mentors women in arts leadership have to turn to for help or advice. It can often feel like you’re “going it alone” as a young female director or set designer or sound designer or playwright. RED STAGE wants to connect women as well as other underserved voices in the arts who feel isolated in their pursuit of excellent theatre-making. After Worse Than Tigers kicks things off, RED STAGE community events will bring artists together to knit a stronger tomorrow for women in the arts.

NE: How does RED STAGE hope to contribute to the local and national conversation?EP: I believe that Seattle is about to have a huge moment. We are a rapidly-growing international city with a blossoming theatre scene that is starting to get significant national attention. My sincere hope for RED STAGE — and Seattle as a whole — is that the rest of the country will be looking to us for the next excellent new plays to sweep across the regional theatre scene. We want to help make Seattle a national destination for new play development.

NE: Umbrella Project and RED STAGE certainly share a lot of the same goals: making Seattle a destination for new plays and nurturing playwrights being two of them. What does RED STAGE joining the UP network mean to you? EP: Yes, we do share a lot of the same goals. Championing new play development takes a lot of resources, as you know. A small, or even large, theatre can’t do it alone. Producing new plays takes a certain amount of risk. It takes an entire community getting excited and invested in a shared goal for a new theatre company or a new play to be successful. That’s what excites me about Umbrella Project. It’s not just me saying “Hey, come see my play because I think it’ll help make the world feel a little less lonely” it’s more like “HEY! Let’s all lean into this beautiful moment Seattle has to lead a charge for new play development!” It’s a tangible feeling now that many Seattle theatres large and small have new play development as a priority, and RED STAGE is thrilled to join that conversation.

As part of Umbrella Project’s commitment to supporting theatre within their local and national networks, Umbrella is collaborating with Strawberry Theatre Workshop to help launch the Strawberry Theatre Book Club. This program--to read and discuss as many as 24 scripts each year--will invigorate Strawshop’s season selection process, and generate community discussion around Strawshop’s mission.

“We’re thrilled to be partnering with such a beloved local theatre,” says Umbrella Project Executive Director, Norah Elges, “and I know both organizations are going to benefit from this influx of voices.”

As part of the Book Club, Strawshop will host monthly play discussion meetings with a core group of artists who will discuss plays under consideration for future productions. Umbrella will select two of the Book Club plays each month from their library of local new work, and will facilitate the Book Club discussion. The pilot project will run for nine months and will include two public readings (in June and October), corresponding with when Strawshop is in residence at 12th Ave Arts.

In alignment with Umbrella Project's mission, all public showings will be of new work and will include a post show discussion facilitated by Umbrella Project. Artists will receive a small stipend and the staged readings will be free and open to the public. The schedule for these public events is:

Umbrella Project founding members Norah Elges, Gavin Reub, and Erin Bednarz sat down the City Arts Magazine Senior Editor Gemma Wilson to talk about how the company got started and what's coming up next.

​Making theatre is messy, complicated and expensive; making successful theatre is even more so. Umbrella Project, a playwright-centric organization formed last year by young theatre professionals Norah Elges, Erin Bednarz and Gavin Reub, hopes to make that process a little easier. Describing Umbrella Project is tricky because there isn't much like it. They're not a theatre company and they don't want to produce plays—they want to help playwrights improve plays and then connect those plays with organizations to produce them. It sounds at first like an unnecessary middleman, but they might be on to something.

Hello, and happy new year, cherished Umbrella Project supporter,You haven’t heard from us in a while, but that doesn’t mean we haven’t been busy. In the six months since we officially formed Umbrella Project, we’ve successfully completed afully-funded Kickstarter campaign, co-producedthe first full-production of Emily Conbere’s Knocking Bird, got some fancy branded email addresses, partnered with the New-York-based Dramaturgy Open Office Hours Project to revamp office hours sessions in Seattle, went to the Gregory Awards, and networked with a variety of movers and shakers in Seattle and nationally who are helping usreimagine the way new plays are valued, produced, and funded.We wouldn’t be able to do a single one of those things without your support. Through your financial contributions, your coffee-date consultations, your introductory emails, your attendance at Knocking Bird,your “like” on our Facebook page, your reading of this email, you said “yes.” “Yes” to the place of new plays in our cultural eco-system, “yes” to seeking solutions to the problems that plague the old model of producing new work. “Yes” to Umbrella Project. Your “yes” means the world to us. Thank you.So what’s next?

We’re currently in the process of finding a home for the second production for Knocking Bird (if you know a theater that you think would be a good fit, email us at literary@umbrellaprojecnw.org). In 2016, we’ll host two First Looks—staged readings for potential producing partners—for local playwrights. We’re also launching The Forecast,our email newsletter that will let you know about upcoming performances and events from our network. Our New Play Calendar is in the works, with plans to be fully operational in the spring. And we’re cooking up another surprise or two that we’re just not able to tell you about yet... (it's killing us, but we're trying to be responsible).

We’re all wishing you a sparkling, joyful New Year's Eve. Rest up, because we’re hitting the ground running in 2016.

Warm wishes,

Norah ElgesExecutive Director, Umbrella Project

P.S. Our Shunpike donation button is working! If you'd like to make a tax-deductible donation to Umbrella Project, we can now officially accommodate. Woohoo! Check it out here.

Knocking Bird is the first co-production of the recently-launched Umbrella Project. Knocking Birdis produced in association with West of Lenin and Splinter Group. Paul Budraitis (The Salesman is Dead and Gone, Bo-Nita) directs; Sam Hagen (The Flick, The Lower Depths), Angela DiMarco (Boeing, Boeing, The Foreigner), and Alex Matthews (reWilding, Is She Dead Yet?) star.

Knocking Bird is a psychological thriller about a husband and wife who retreat to the woods after a car accident leaves her body and his mind wrecked. Between long walks to the 7-11 and a mounting, lingering obsession with birds, the couple grapples with a visit from the man who shaped their past and threatens their future. Conbere describes the play as a look at “the strange and uncomfortable ways that couples transform and adapt to each other in order to stay together.”

“Umbrella Project was born out of a need to create a better way to support the work of our local playwrights,” says Executive Director Norah Elges, “We chose Knocking Bird for our first production because it is a perfect example of the barriers to the production of new work in Seattle. Knocking Bird had a reading at the Seattle Repertory Theatre in June 2013 when Conbere was in the Writers Group there, and the play was developed as a one-act by Sandbox Collective after an initial commission from Live Girls! Theatre. Conbere has been writing plays in Seattle for almost five years and has yet to have a full production of her work, despite being a respected playwright in the Seattle theatre community. We are excited to be able to change that.”

ADDITIONAL EVENTS:Preview on September 10 and Industry Night on September 21 will be Pay-What-You-Can. There will be a talkback with select members of the cast and creative team following the performances on September 17, September 24, and October 1.

About Umbrella Project

Producer, director, dramaturg, and actor Norah Elges, Gavin Reub (Co-Artistic Director of The Seagull Project, Casting Associate for Book-It Repertory) and Erin Bednarz (Artist Liaison and Outreach Coordinator for Live Girls Theater!), founded Umbrella Project in Seattle, WA in 2015. Umbrella Project invests in playwrights and the viability of new work through advocacy, collaboration, and development.